HUNT, Texas – Hunt — one of the towns hit by the catastrophic Fourth of July floods — has received aid from the Hill Country Community Fund, but residents know more immediate support is needed.
Hunt is an unincorporated community in western Kerr County without a local government. When it comes to support after a natural disaster, resident Lisa Field said it’s “neighbors helping neighbors.”
“We have complete homes just wiped out, like, down to foundations,” Field said. “People have not only lost homes, but they’ve lost all of their belongings as well and their vehicles.”
Field said the community has lost some of the places that make the area special, including The Hunt Store, the Hunt Post Office and Crider’s Rodeo & Dancehall.
Haley Lehrmann, owner of The Hunt Store, said the business is “the community store.”
“We’re just here as a steward and want to try to get it back going so that we can have our little hub back,” Lehrmann said.
Before the floods, Lehrmann said there were groups coming in every day.
“The 3 o’clock group, the evening crowd, the live music,” she said. “I mean, kids come down every day after school and come and get a candy or ice cream or whatever. ... It was the hub of the community.”
Funds to support the town are slowly coming in from places, such as the Hill Country Community Fund, which has received donations from around the world.
However, some residents don’t believe it will be enough to completely restore Hunt.
In response, the city’s preservation society launched the Hunt Flood Recovery Fund to provide ongoing assistance.
“The community foundation can certainly help us, and they have been ... but they also have to cover a big territory with the entire county,” Field said.
The Hunt Preservation Society created a community allocation committee, where neighbors like Field and six others will help disperse the money where it is needed most.
“We know the people and we know where they’ll be going, Field said. ”And we know what makes Hunt, Hunt."
The road to recovery
Field said the top priority for the committee is getting children “back to some normalcy,” as the upcoming school year approaches.
The group also wants to assist the older population in the community and provide financial assistance to The Hunt Store and other local businesses.
The committee will hold an information session between 2 p.m. and 6 p.m. on Wednesday at The Hunt School for people within Hunt Independent School District borders who need assistance.
Attendees will be asked to fill out a survey to assess their needs. Questions include:
- Do you have a place to stay?
- Was your vehicle lost in the flood?
- Was your business affected?
Field said the session will be held like an “open house,” with multiple organizations in attendance — including the Red Cross, Federal Emergency Management Agency, Texas Division of Emergency Management and local churches.
More related coverage of the Hill Country Floods on KSAT.com: